ED transfers Jalandhar add’l director amid summons to Amarinder, son

Jalandhar: Amid summons to former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and his son, Raninder Singh, by the Enforcement Directorate, Jalandhar, additional director Ravi Tewari was transferred from Jalandhar to Chennai. The summons were issued in connection with an ongoing probe under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) into alleged undisclosed foreign assets.The ED summoned the former CM and his son to appear separately at the ED's Jalandhar office on February 12 and 13. As Amarinder underwent knee replacement surgery in a Mohali hospital on Tuesday, he did not appear on Friday. Raninder also did not appear on Thursday. This was the first time Amarinder was also summoned, while Raninder had appeared earlier also.The transfer took place amid a major political controversy, when Congress Punjab affairs in-charge Bhupesh Baghel said the party was open to Amarinder's return, and the former CM's daughter, Jai Inder Kaur, said that he would stay with BJP. Congress MLA Pargat Singh said the moment the former CM raised pointed questions about his standing in the BJP and the party's utter disregard for Punjab's interests, central agencies swiftly clamped down to muzzle him.However, ED sources said Tewari's transfer was not related to the summons sent to him.In Sept last year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court cleared the way for the ED to inspect documents held by the income-tax (IT) department for a probe into alleged foreign assets of the duo.The documents, received from French authorities under the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, were used by the IT department to initiate proceedings in 2016. As per the IT department, Amarinder was allegedly the beneficiary of foreign bank accounts and assets linked to the Jacaranda Trust. Similar allegations were made against Raninder.